Deshaun Watson threw only 'on air,' but the Browns are pleased with his recovery process. Coordinator Ken Dorsey did indicate Watson may be on a pitch count all season. (Cleveland Browns)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
Takeaways from Browns’ OTA session open to media …
The Browns intentionally rescheduled the media to Thursday’s OTA session so they could view Deshaun Watson on his regularly-scheduled throwing day.
Watson had surgery to repair a dislocated fracture of the glenoid bone in his right shoulder on November 21. He started throwing under the auspices of surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache on March 19 in Los Angeles. Since OTAs began last week, Watson has thrown on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This was the first time media viewed Watson throwing to teammates.
Here is what we saw:
Watson ramped up slowly with a period of soft tosses to backs and tight ends circling out of the backfield. Sufficiently loosened up, his targets were extended in a period with receivers “against air” – meaning, no defenders.
His passes were not at game speed, but they mostly were on the mark, primarily in the 8- to 20-yard range. He wrapped up with a rainbow of about 40 yards to Elijah Moore.
Watson seemed totally comfortable. At no point did he flex his arm or shoulder after a throw or in between throws.
When the offense picked up the tempo in a 7-on-7 period, only Jameis Winston and Tyler Huntley threw while Watson watched off to the side.
After practice, offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey said, “I think kind of each day it just keeps going. And so I think that’s part of this process, and it is a process.”
Dorsey explained how he went through a similar process as QB coach of the Carolina Panthers when Cam Newton was recovering from surgery to repair a partially torn rotator cuff in March of 2017.
“We had to make sure we’re monitoring distance of throws, couldn’t go past a yardage,” Dorsey said. “How many throws he’s making that practice. All those things were basically throughout the entire year.
“So I think where he’s at right now is kind of in that process right now. And as he gets more and more comfortable -- and part of that’s just the mental side of things, too, that, ‘OK, I can start really open it up more and more because of the confidence.’ So I think there’s a lot of that involved with it as well, but you see him continue each day, ramping it up a little bit more and more.
“He threw the ball down the sideline, a vertical throw today [to Moore]. That’s one I haven’t seen from him a lot because we haven’t pushed him to do that. So that was good to see. I think the more he grows and feels comfortable with it, the more you’ll start seeing those things get ramped up more and more.”
Dorsey, who was hired to install a shotgun, spread offense to accentuate Watson’s skillset, admits there is a fine line between accomodating Watson’s recovery process while still needing to get the rest of the players up to speed with his offensive system.
“Because of his situation, obviously, he’s trying to get all the reps he possibly can from a mental standpoint, but we still want to install the offense, and we still want to get everybody else involved up to speed,” Dorsey said. “So that puts a lot on us as coaches and in the quarterback room to make sure we’re maximizing every learning tool possible. You don’t want to limit what you’re installing just based off of his availability, because there’s things that those other guys need to make sure they’re getting reps on, too.”
Schwartz speaks
In his first media availability since the 45-14 debacle in the AFC wild-card loss to Houston, defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz stepped outside the “bad day to have a bad day” company line.
“My biggest takeaway from that was we chased plays in that game,” Schwartz said. “Instead of letting the plays come to us and making the plays that were there. It just seemed like we were pressing and guys played a little bit out of character instead of just doing their job with physical toughness and effort and some personality, all of a sudden we played a little bit out of character.
“We started pressing, and hopefully that’s a great learning experience for us the next time we’re in that situation … Guys were pressing, guys were trying to make the play of the game and, you know, we learned a very hard lesson and we paid a dear price for that. Hopefully we can use that to our advantage as we go forward.”
“I [won’t] just put it on players. There were a couple times in there that even as a play-caller, I started pressing. The game started getting away from us a little bit and I started pressing. It’s like, ‘Oh, let me dial this up, see if it [works].’ And, you know, a lot of times it just makes things worse.”
Brownie bits
Ex-Tennessee head coach Mike Vrabel was hired by the Browns as a coaching and personnel consultant, but on Thursday he was a pure coach. Vrabel was a teammate with special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone with the Patriots from 2005 through 2008 and he has spent a lot of time with Ventrone plotting how to execute the new hybrid kickoff rule. Vrabel was hands-on with players in a punting period and also lined up at D-end with the scout team in another period …
Tackles Jedrick Wills and Dawand Jones, who had season-ending surgeries in 2023, were on hand. Jones participated in one slow-tempo period. Right tackle Jack Conklin, who had major knee surgery on September 12, was among the missing. That group included about a dozen starting players on offense, defense, and kicker Dustin Hopkins …
Why are the Browns carrying three place-kickers? Ventrone explained the team wants to ease the training camp load on Hopkins, who’s had hamstring issues. They also wanted to bring back Cade York. So what about K3 Lucas Havrisik? Ventrone likes his ability as a kicker, but Havrisik also can punt, and he’s right-footed, which gives the punt returners the right-footed spin on the ball in practice that they miss if the left-footed Corey Bojorquez was the only punter, as he was last year ...
Receiver Elijah Moore, who’s in the last year of his rookie contract, was taken aback by a question about whether he skipped OTAs last week as some sort of protest of the new contract extension given newcomer Jerry Jeudy. “Let’s just clear that up. There’s nothing to be mad about,” Moore said. "I ain’t never shy from nothing. I’m from Florida, so that’s nothing that I’m ever afraid of. If anything, that opens us up, which you guys don’t realize, you know? And I’m excited about what we got. You know, I grew up with these guys.” As to his own contract situation, Moore said, “If I think about it, I’m gonna drive myself crazy. I just take it one day at a time. I focus on the task ahead. If I handle what I’m supposed to handle, I’m gonna be blessed, you see what I’m saying? So that’s just how I look at it. I don’t really focus on that because it’s not my time yet.”